Tactile communication apparatus, method, and computer program product

ABSTRACT

A tactile communication apparatus that includes a signal receiver configured decode data received via a wireless signal, a tactile communication device containing a plurality of pins on one side, each pin configured to respectively move in both an outward direction and inward direction to form a plurality of pin combinations based on a plurality of activation signals, and a communication processor configured to generate the plurality of pin activation signals based on the received data so as to convey the data to a user through the plurality of pin combinations of the tactile communication device.

GRANT OF NON-EXCLUSIVE RIGHT

This application was prepared with financial support from the SaudiArabian Cultural Mission, and in consideration therefore the presentinventor(s) has granted The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia a non-exclusiveright to practice the present invention.

BACKGROUND Field of the Disclosure

Embodiments described herein relate generally to an apparatus, method,and computer program product for tactile communication. Moreparticularly, the embodiments described relate to an apparatus that canfacilitate data communications for (users who are occupying the use oftheir visual and auditory senses) and the visually impaired.

SUMMARY

According to an embodiment, there is provided a tactile communicationapparatus that includes a signal receiver configured decode datareceived via a wireless signal, a tactile communication devicecontaining a plurality of pins on one side, each pin configured torespectively move in both an outward direction and inward direction toform a plurality of pin combinations based on a plurality of activationsignals, and a communication processor configured to generate theplurality of pin activation signals based on the received data so as toconvey the data to a user through the plurality of pin combinations ofthe tactile communication device.

According to another embodiment, there is also provided a method oftactile communication

The foregoing paragraphs have been provided by way of generalintroduction, and are not intended to limit the scope of the followingclaims. The described embodiments, together with further advantages,will be best understood by reference to the following detaileddescription taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

A more complete appreciation of the present advancements and many of theattendant advantages thereof will be readily obtained as the samebecomes better understood by reference to the following detaileddescription when considered in connection with the accompanyingdrawings. However, the accompanying drawings and the exemplarydepictions do not in any way limit the scope of the advancementsembraced by the specification. The scope of the advancements embraced bythe specification and drawings are defined by the words of theaccompanying claims.

FIGS. 1A and 1B illustrate a front view and a rear view, respectively,of a tactile communication apparatus according to an exemplaryembodiment.

FIG. 2 illustrates an ergonomic design of the tactile communicationdevice according to an exemplary embodiment.

FIG. 3 illustrates a pin of the tactile communication device accordingto an exemplary embodiment.

FIGS. 4A and 4B illustrate Braille code and the corresponding output ofthe tactile communication device according to an exemplary embodiment.

FIG. 5 illustrates the output of relative directional data via thetactile communication device according to an exemplary embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram of a tactile communication apparatus accordingto an exemplary embodiment.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram of a tactile communication apparatus includingnavigational features according to an exemplary embodiment.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram of a tactile communication apparatus includingdetection features according to an exemplary embodiment.

FIG. 9 is a sequence diagram illustrating the communication features ofthe tactile communication apparatus according to an exemplaryembodiment.

FIG. 10 is a sequence diagram illustrating the navigational features ofthe tactile communication apparatus according to an exemplaryembodiment.

FIG. 11 is a sequence diagram illustrating the detection features of thetactile communication apparatus according to an exemplary embodiment.

FIG. 12 is a hardware block diagram of a target tracking processoraccording to an exemplary embodiment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS

Tremendous developments have occurred with mobile communication devicesin a very short time frame. However they have been dependant on theusers' visual or auditory senses to interact with them often causing theuser to have to pause whatever they are doing to use the device. Tactilecommunication allows the users to feel the information, enabling lessdisruption to their physical activities in certain cases.

The present inventor recognized the need to improve the way informationcan be communicated discreetly to individuals without interruption totheir visual and auditory activities and to assist navigation andcommunication while they are in motion. With the way computer technologyis advancing and the way it is changing the lives of people, adequatemethods of communication need to be established to tackle issuesespecially in a mobility situation.

The tactile communication apparatus is designed to communicate data suchas simple text in a physical or tactile manner. Text can becommunicated, for example, in the form of Braille and directions in theform of directional tactile indication. The tactile communicationapparatus combines both a hardware unit to work alongside computersoftware. It is designed to be versatile in the sense that it can workwith several software programs as well as wired and wireless networks.Along with simple text and directional communications, the tactilecommunication apparatus is able to interact with the surroundingenvironment to communicate additional data such as tag detection, GPSnavigation, object recognition and identification, obstacle detection,etc.

The tactile communicator has also been ergonomically designed to tacklemany mobility communication issues highlighted in the user research. Itintroduces a new way of communication to mobile Smartphone users in sucha way that their visual and auditory senses are not interrupted. Thecommunication method is discrete, light, easy to use, unrestrictive andvery useful for navigation in an outside mobile environment.

Referring now to the drawings, wherein like reference numerals designateidentical or corresponding parts throughout several views.

FIG. 1A illustrates a front view of a tactile communication apparatus 1according to an exemplary embodiment. The tactile communicationapparatus 1 consists of two main parts: a processing section 20 and atactile communication device 30. The processing section 20 receivessignals and data from external sources and generates pin activationsignals based on the data to be communicated to a user 10. The tactilecommunication device 30 receives pin activation signals and activates aplurality of pin combinations in a particular sequence so physicallycommunicate data to the user 10 through a tactile projection and/orhaptic mechanism (e.g., vibration). FIG. 1B illustrates a rear view ofthe tactile communication apparatus 1.

The processing section 20 receives data from any number of wired orwireless inputs. Such wired inputs may be received via a network cable,fiber optic cable, USB cable, firewire cable, or the such. Wirelessinputs may be received from any form of wireless network such a WiFi,cellular, or near field communication type systems and associatedprotocols. Once a signal from a wired or wireless network is received bythe processing section 20, it is processed by the appropriate processingportion to decode the signal to useful information and/or data.Activation signals for the tactile communication device 30 are thengenerated based on the decoded information and/or data.

The tactile communication device 30 facilitates communication with theuser 10 through both a receiving data from the user 10 through a keypad302 and transmitting data to the user 10 through a set of pins 304.Information received by the processing section 20 is processed andactivation signals for the set of pins 302 are generated and sent to thetactile communication device 30. The tactile communication device 30then activates the appropriate sequence of pins 304 to convey theinformation or data to the user 10 through a tactile indication.

The tactile communication device 30 is ergonomically designed, asillustrated in FIG. 2 which show the rear section of the tactilecommunication device 30 corresponding to FIG. 1B, so as to comfortablyand completely contour to the shape of the palm of the user's 10 hand.This allows a more efficient and effective method of tactilecommunication with the user 10 because the pins 304 of the tactilecommunication device 30 are more likely to come into contact with theuser 10 and the user 10 is more likely to understand and recognize thesequence of pin activations from the tactile communication device 30.

The front section of the tactile communication device 30, as illustratedin FIG. 1A, is flat and contains a keypad 302. The keypad 302 cancontain any number of keys in any number of configurations. The user 10can use the keypad 302 as an interface to initiate communication orrespond to received communication. For a non-limiting example, thekeypad 302 can be of a similar configuration to that of a standard ormobile telephone alpha/numeric keypad where the first key corresponds to1 or ABC, the second key corresponds to 2 or DEF, etc. When the user 10wants to input a message that starts with the letter “B,” the user willpress the first key two times to indicate that the second character ofthe first key is desired to be input. In a second non-limiting example,the tactile communication device 30 or processing section 20 can beequipped with software where the user 10 presses keys containing thedesired letters once and the software will infer the desired word/phrasebased on the keypad 302 combinations pressed by the user 10.

The pins 304 of the tactile communication device 30 can be any form ofmechanism that can convey a tactile indication, such as a solenoid 300illustrated in FIG. 3. In an exemplary embodiment, the solenoid 300contains a plunger 302, a pin 304, a coil 306, an end stop 308, a frame310, and a set of permanent magnets 312. A pin activation signalgenerated at the processing section 20 actuates the solenoid 300 via thepermanents magnets 312 and the coil 306. This causes the plunger 302 topush the pin 304 in an outward direction until the pin reaches the endstop 308. When the pin 304 is moving in an outward direction, it comesinto contact with the user 10 providing a tactile indication. When theactivation signal is no longer present, the plunger 302 returns to itsinitial state and the pin 304 moves in an inward direction. When the pin304 is moving in an inward direction, it comes out of contact with theuser 10 and no longer provides a tactile indication. Through the use ofmultiple solenoids, combinations of tactile indications can be createdby activating the multiple solenoids through specific sequences so as tophysically communicate data and information.

The sequence in which the pins 304 are activated can correspond to anyform of code or language understood by the user 10 such as Braille whichis commonly used by the blind or people with limited visual capability.

FIG. 4A illustrates the letters of the alphabet and the correspondingBraille code. The user 10 will recognize letters based on a specific pin304 combination based on the Braille code and be able to spell out wordsover a series of pin 304 combinations. FIG. 4B illustrates the pin 304combinations presented to the user 10 based on the tactile communicationdevice 30 as discussed above. It should be noted that in non-limitingillustration in 4B, that the left most column and the right most columnare used to present characters according to the Braille code, but anyconfiguration may be used that is easily understandable by the user 10.

FIG. 4B also illustrates how direction information is passed to the user10 based on cardinal direction indications such as North, South, East,West, etc. When communicating directional information, the tactilecommunication apparatus 1 can guide the user 10 to any specified targetor location using cardinal directions based on the pin 304 combinationsillustrated in 4B.

Further, FIG. 5 also illustrates how direction information is passed tothe user 10 based on relative direction indication based on a bearingrelative to the users 10 current direction.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram of an exemplary tactile communicationapparatus 1. Data and information is sent to the tactile communicationapparatus 1 via a wireless network 40. It should also be noted that dataand information can also be sent to the tactile communication apparatus1 via a wired network. The processing section 20 receives the datasignal from the wireless network 40 at the signal receiver 204. Thesignal receiver 204 decodes the data signal and sends the data to thecommunication processor 202. The communication processor parses the dataand generates pin activation signals that are sent to the tactilecommunication device 30 which physically communicates the data to theuser 10 via the pins 304. Data and information can also be generated bythe user 10 at the tactile communication device 30, via the keypad 302,and sent to the communication processor 202. The communication processor202 will process the inputs received from the tactile communicationdevice 30 and construct a formatted data or information message. Themessage will be sent to the signal receiver 204 which will generate adata packet based on the medium in which the message will be transmittedand then transmit the data packet to the wired or wireless network 40.

In another embodiment, the tactile communication device 30 can alsoinclude a vibration unit 306 to provide an additional means of tactilecommunication. The vibration unit 306 may be activated to providegeneral or non specific indication or acknowledgement of an event suchas confirmation that a message has been sent, indication that a messagehas been received, or to notify the user 10 of an error.

In another embodiment, FIG. 7 is a block diagram of a tactilecommunication apparatus 1 that can provide position and navigationfunctionality. In this embodiment, the processing section 20 alsocontains a GPS unit 208 that receives position data from a satellitenetwork 50. The GPS unit calculates a current position based on thereceived position data and then sends the current position to thenavigation processor 206. The navigation processor 206 can either relaythe current position to the user 10 via the pins 304, or updatenavigation data to a predetermined location or object and providedirectional information to the user 10 via the pins 304 based on acurrent position. Directional information, for example, can be providedto the user 10 via cardinal direction, as illustrated in FIG. 4B, orrelative direction, as illustrated in FIG. 5. The user 10 can input adesired destination or object to the navigation processor 206, via thekeypad 302, for which the navigation processor 206 will calculatedirectional information.

In another embodiment, FIG. 8 is a block diagram of a tactilecommunication apparatus 1 that can provide object recognition andidentification functionality. In this embodiment, the processing section20 also contains a detection unit 212 that receives images or sensordata 60 of the surrounding environment of the user 10. Images or sensordata 60 can be obtained from an appropriate sensing mechanism such as acamera, video recorder, motion detection, or radar or sonar device. Datafrom one of these devices is received by the detection unit 212 whereobjects and features contained within the data can be identified andstripped or isolated. Object and feature data is then sent to thedetection processor 210 where they are processed and compared to knownor predetermined objects. If a match is made and an object or feature isrecognized, the detection processor 210 will notify the user 10 via thetactile communication device 30 of the recognition.

In a non-limiting example of the above described process, the user 10may wish to locate a nearby object, such as a digital camera. The user10 would enter in an appropriate code into the keypad 302, such as “DC”for digital camera, to indicate to the tactile communication apparatus 1that the user would like to locate this object. The tactilecommunication apparatus 1 would then receive image or sensor data 60from the surrounding environment from an appropriate sensor (not shown),which can either be attached to the tactile communication apparatus 1 ora separate device. Image and sensor data 60 would then be fed into thedetection unit 212 for image processing. Features and object locatedwithin the image and sensor data would then be sent to the detectionprocessor 210 which would parse the features and objects until thedigital camera was recognized.

Further, the detection processor could work in conjunction with thenavigation processor so that once a desired object has been recognizedor found, the navigation processor could guide the user 10 to the objectusing the pins 304 of the tactile communication device 30.

FIG. 9 is a sequence diagram of a tactile communication apparatus 1according to an exemplary embodiment. Initially, the tactilecommunication apparatus 1 may be standing by at step S100 to receive awireless signal via the signal receiver 204. When a signal is receivedby the signal receiver 104 at S102, the signal is decoded or demodulatedbased on the type of network and protocols which the signal wasreceived. The signal is then processed at the communication processor202 to produce the data which is to be communicated to the user 10 atstep S104. The communication processor 202 generates pin activationsignals at step S106 and transmits the pin activation signals to thetactile communication device 30.

Once the tactile communication device 30 receives the pin activationsignals at step 108 the tactile communication device 30 activates theappropriate pins in a specific sequence according to the pin activationsignals so as to communicate the received data to the user 10. When thedata has been communicated to the user 10 via the tactile communicationdevice 30, the user 10 may or may not provide a response to the data tothe tactile communication device 30 via the keypad 302 at step S110. Ifno user response is detected at step S110, the tactile communicationapparatus 1 returns to a standby state at step S112. If the user 10response has been detected at step S110 via the keypad 306, thecommunication processor receives the data from the tactile communicationdevice 30 at step S114. The received data from user 10 is processed atstep S116 so as to transmit the data via a wireless signal. Once thedata has been encoded or modulated via the appropriate means based onthe network, the data is transmitted over the wireless network at stepS118. Finally, the tactile communication apparatus 1 returns to standbystate at step S112.

According to another embodiment, FIG. 10 is a sequence diagram of atactile communication apparatus 1 illustrating the features out ofproviding navigational data to a user 10. Initially, the tactilecommunication apparatus 1 may be standing by at step S200 to receive adesired destination or location from user 10. Once a desired location ordestination has been received from a user at step S202, the navigationprocessor 206 processes the destination data to produce navigation dataat step S204. The navigation processor 206 also receives GPS data fromthe GPS unit 208. Once the navigational data has been generated by thenavigation processor 206 at step S204 the navigation processor 206generates pin activation signals at step S206 to communicate thenavigation data to the user 10. Activation signals are received at thetactile communication device 30 at step S208 which initiates the tactilecommunication of the navigation data to the user 10. When thenavigational data is being communicated to the user 10 the user mayrespond or continue to follow the navigation data at step S210. If theuser provides no response and continues to follow the navigation data atstep S210, a further determination will be made based on the continuedsupply of GPS data from the GPS unit 208 to determine if the user 10 hasreached the desired destination at step 212. If the desired destinationhas not yet been reached at step S212 the tactile communicationapparatus 1 continues to process navigation data at step S204 tocontinue to guide the user 10 to the desired destination. If a desireddestination has been determined to be reached at step S212 the tactilecommunication apparatus returns to a standby state at step S214. Uponreceiving tactile indication at step 208, the user 10 may respond toprovide updated destination information or corrections at step S210. Ifuser 10 response has been detected at step S210 the navigation processor206 receives input from step S216 and then processes that information atstep 218 to update or correct navigational data. The tactilecommunication apparatus 1 then determines if the new destination hasbeen reached at step 212. If the new destination has not yet beenreached at step S212 the tactile communication apparatus 1 continues toprocess navigation data at step S204. Otherwise the tactilecommunication apparatus 1 enters into a standby state once the newdestination has been reached at step S214.

According to another embodiment FIG. 11 is a sequence diagram of atactile communication apparatus 1 providing the additional features ofobject identification and recognition. Initially the tactilecommunication apparatus 1 may be standing by at step S300 to receive anobject identification code from the user 10. When an objectidentification code is received from the user 10 at step S302, via thekeypad 302, the detection processor 210 receives sensor data 60 of aplurality of objects to be identified via the detection unit 212. Sensordata received by the detection unit 212 can be any form capable of beingprocessed by the detection processor 210 such as image information,motion information, or radar or sonar information. Once the surroundingobjects about the tactile communication apparatus 1 have been detectedat step S304, the detection processor 210 processes and identifiesobjects and features contained within the sensor data at step S306. Oncethe sensor data has been processed at step S306, the detection processor210 determines if an identified object or feature corresponds to theobject identification code received from the user 10 at step S302. If arecognized object fails to match the object identification code at stepS308, the tactile communication device 30 may indicate an error or a nomatch indication at step S310 via activating a vibration unit 306 in thetactile communication device 30. Once the user 10 is notified that nomatches have been detected, the tactile communication apparatus 1 willreturn to a standby state at step S312. If at step S308 a match has beendetermined of a recognized object with the object identification code,the detection processor 210 may work in conjunction with the navigationprocessor 206 to generate directional data for the user to navigate tothe recognized object at step S314. Navigation data to the recognizedobject will be communicated to the user via the tactile communicationdevice 30 at step S316. When the user 10 has been successfully guided tothe desired object at step S318 the tactile communication apparatusreturns to a standby state at step S312.

Next, a hardware description of the tactile communication apparatus 1according to exemplary embodiments is described with reference to FIG.12. In FIG. 12, the tactile communication apparatus 1 includes a CPU 500which performs the processes described above. The process data andinstructions may be stored in memory 502. These processes andinstructions may also be stored on a storage medium disk 504 such as ahard drive (HDD) or portable storage medium or may be stored remotely.Further, the claimed advancements are not limited by the form of thecomputer-readable media on which the instructions of the inventiveprocess are stored. For example, the instructions may be stored on CDs,DVDs, in FLASH memory, RAM, ROM, PROM, EPROM, EEPROM, hard disk or anyother information processing device with which the tactile communicationapparatus 1 communicates, such as a server or computer.

Further, the claimed advancements may be provided as a utilityapplication, background daemon, or component of an operating system, orcombination thereof, executing in conjunction with CPU 500 and anoperating system such as Microsoft Windows 7, UNIX, Solaris, LINUX,Apple MAC-OS and other systems known to those skilled in the art.

CPU 500 may be a Xenon or Core processor from Intel of America or anOpteron processor from AMD of America, or may be other processor typesthat would be recognized by one of ordinary skill in the art.Alternatively, the CPU 500 may be implemented on an FPGA, ASIC, PLD orusing discrete logic circuits, as one of ordinary skill in the art wouldrecognize. Further, CPU 500 may be implemented as multiple processorscooperatively working in parallel to perform the instructions of theinventive processes described above.

The tactile communication apparatus 1 in FIG. 12 also includes a signalreceiver 204, such as an Intel Ethernet PRO network interface card fromIntel Corporation of America, for interfacing with wireless network 40.As can be appreciated, the wireless network 40 can be a public network,such as the Internet, or a private network such as an LAN or WANnetwork, or any combination thereof and can also include PSTN or ISDNsub-networks. The wireless network 40 can also be wired, such as anEthernet network, or can be wireless such as a cellular networkincluding EDGE, 3G and 4G wireless cellular systems. The wirelessnetwork can also be WiFi, Bluetooth, or any other wireless form ofcommunication that is known.

The mobile tracking and subduing apparatus 20 further includes a displaycontroller 508, such as a NVIDIA GeForce GTX or Quadro graphics adaptorfrom NVIDIA Corporation of America for interfacing with display 510,such as a Hewlett Packard HPL2445w LCD monitor. A general purpose I/Ointerface 512 interfaces with a keypad 302 as well as a touch screenpanel 516 on or separate from display 510. General purpose I/O interfacealso connects to a plurality of pins 304.

A sound controller 520 is also provided in the tactile communicationapparatus 1, such as Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium from Creative, tointerface with speakers/microphone 522 thereby providing sounds and/ormusic. The speakers/microphone 522 can also be used to accept dictatedwords as commands for controlling the tactile communication apparatus 1or for providing location and/or property information with respect tothe target property.

The general purpose storage controller 524 connects the storage mediumdisk 504 with communication bus 526, which may be an ISA, EISA, VESA,PCI, or similar, for interconnecting all of the components of thetactile communication apparatus 1. A description of the general featuresand functionality of the display 510, as well as the display controller508, storage controller 524, network controller 506, and soundcontroller 520 is omitted herein for brevity as these features areknown.

What is claimed is:
 1. A tactile communication apparatus comprising: asignal receiver configured to decode data received via a wirelesssignal; a forearm support that holds the tactile communication apparatusto a user; a portable tactile communication device containing aplurality of pins on one side and configured to be detachably attachedover a palm of a user such that the one side having the plurality ofpins contacts the palm of the user without restriction of fingermovement, each pin configured to respectively move in an outwarddirection and an inward direction to form a plurality of pincombinations to be received in the palm of the user in response to aplurality of pin activation signals activating at least a portion of theplurality of pins; and a communication processor configured to generatethe plurality of pin activation signals determined from the receiveddata so as to convey the data tactilly to a user through the pluralityof pin combinations of the tactile communication device.
 2. The tactilecommunication apparatus of claim 1, wherein the pin combinationscorrespond to Braille characters.
 3. The tactile communication apparatusof claim 2, wherein the plurality of pins consisting of a three by threematrix of pins with a left column and a right column being used toconvey Braille characters.
 4. The tactile communication apparatus ofclaim 3, wherein the one side of the tactile communication devicecontaining the plurality of pins is ergonomically shaped in the form ofa users palm such that each one of the plurality of pins, when moved inan outwards direction, comes into full contact with a palm of the usershand.
 5. The tactile communication apparatus of claim 4, furthercomprising a plurality of buttons located on the side opposite the onecontaining the plurality of pins on the tactile communication device,the plurality of buttons configured to receive input from the user. 6.The tactile communication apparatus of claim 5, further comprising: aGPS unit configured to generate position and navigation data; and anavigation processor configured to generate a plurality of activationsignals based on the generated position and navigation data so as toconvey the position and navigation data to the user through theplurality of pin combinations of the tactile communication device. 7.The tactile communication apparatus of claim 6, further comprising: adetection unit configured to receive sensor data from a plurality ofsensor sources; and a detection processor configured to receive anobject identification code of a desired object and process the receivedsensor data by extracting features and objects contained within thesensor data, comparing the extracted features and objects to the objectidentification code, and generating an activation signal based on theresulted of the matching.
 8. The tactile communication apparatus ofclaim 7, wherein when the detection processor finds a match between adesired object, the detection processor sends location information ofthe detected desired object to the navigation processor so as togenerate navigational data to the desired object and convey thenavigational data to the user through the plurality of pin combinationsof the tactile communication device.
 9. A tactile communication methodusing a tactile communications device of claim 1, the method comprising:receiving with a signal receiver data in a wireless signal; receiving adestination data from a user; receiving a desired object data from auser; generating navigational data based on GPS positional data and thereceived destination data; matching the desired object data to sensordata received from a plurality of sensors; generating with thecommunications processor a plurality of pin activation signals based onthe received data, the navigational data, and the results of thematching; and moving a plurality of pins of the portable tactilecommunication device in both an outward direction and inward directionto form a plurality of pin combinations corresponding to Braillecharacters or directional indications based on the plurality ofactivation signals, wherein the portable tactile communication devicecontains plurality of pins on one side and is configured to bedetachably attached over a palm of a user such that the one side opposesthe palm of the user without restriction finger movement, each pinconfigured to respectively move in an outward direction and an inwarddirection to form a plurality of pin combinations to be received in thepalm of the user in response to the plurality of pin activation signalsactivating at least a portion of the plurality of pins.
 10. A tactilecommunication system comprising: a tactile communication apparatus ofclaim 1; and a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium withcomputer readable instructions stored therein that when executed by acomputer, cause the computer to execute a tactile communication methodusing the tactile communications device, the method comprising:receiving with a signal receiver data in a wireless signal data via awireless signal; receiving a destination data from a user; receiving adesired object data from a user; generating navigational data based onGPS positional data and the received destination data; matching thedesired object data to sensor data received from a plurality of sensors;generating with a communications processor a plurality of pin activationsignals based on the received data, the navigational data, and theresults of the matching; and moving a plurality of pins of the portabletactile communication device in both an outward direction and inwarddirection to form a plurality of pin combinations corresponding toBraille characters or directional indications based on the plurality ofactivation signals wherein the portable tactile communication devicecontains plurality of pins on one side and is configured to bedetachably attached over a palm of a user such that the one side opposesthe palm of the user without restriction finger movement, each pinconfigured to respectively move in an outward direction and an inwarddirection to form a plurality of pin combinations to be received in thepalm of the user in response to the plurality of pin activation signalsactivating at least a portion of the plurality of pins.